Efforts to build hangar space for an aircraft maintenance company at Burke Lakefront Airport could prove the first piece of the city of Cleveland's larger, expansive plans for redeveloping the lakefront.

By next spring, Mills Development expects to finish a $6 million building for up to 200 workers on a new road just off the new Austin Boulevard interchange to Interstate 75.

The 40,000-square-foot building will be the first in the company's Ascent office campus and represents a fraction of up to 1.5 million square feet of commercial development projected within two miles of the new interchange along the Warren-Montgomery county line, according to Mills projections.

Government agencies at the state and federal levels need to do more to support small, job-creating businesses, economists and industry advocates said at a manufacturing summit hosted Friday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

The DaytonCREATE initiative, launched in March 2008 to grow a local creative class, has helped improve the city's quality of life and develop future leaders, according to the group's directors and community supporters. The group's efforts have resulted in the Ohio film tax credit legislation passed in 2009, the cleanup and beautification of Wayne Avenue between Third and Fifth Streets, and a new partnership to enliven vacant downtown storefronts with artists' displays.

The 26-employee outsourcing company provides specialized sales services for businesses around the nation. The company's niche is prospecting, also known as ''cold calls,'' on behalf of clients, many of whom are in the supply chain, trucking, warehousing and materials handling industries that include lift-truck dealers. About 80 percent of their customers are outside Ohio and include the trucking giant Ryder System.

The Horseshoe Cincinnati casino will not open until 2013 due to a miscommunication between Ohio legislators and developers concerning taxation. The delayed opening comes after the Ohio House of Representatives failed to pass a budget last month, forcing casino developer Rock Ohio Caesars LLC to hold off on orders for construction supplies.

If developers deliver on their original plans for four casinos, Ohio would become the fourth-richest state in gambling tax revenue - generating $650 million a year and trumping casino states such as Illinois, Missouri and even New Jersey. Ohio would fall right behind No. 3-ranked gambling behemoth Nevada, which reaped $835 million in gambling tax revenue last year.

General Motors Co., state and local officials will visit the company's Toledo Powertrain Plant Tuesday where they are expected to announce plans to invest another $260 million and hire up to 400 additional workers to produce new fuel-efficient 8-speed transmissions for upcoming products.

Workers installed the $11 million canopy over a parking area that will provide shade for 800 of 1,000 parking spots available at the zoo's main entrance. The zoo says the 1.56 megawatt canopy is the country's largest urban solar arrays accessible to the public.

Edited and compiled by: Erika Franz, Center for Community Planning & Development, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University